Sans woke up and immediately regretted it.
His arm hurt.
He looked down to see a bandage on his exposed arm. He was also wearing a shirt he had never seen before. In the dim light he could make out the room he was in. It looked like the Labs. He had spent enough time here in his youth so he would never forget the setup.
Oh. Sans thought as he remembered yesterday's events.
First he had gone out to start on his amazing and clever bridge trap. It was a bit more brutal than he would have liked but Alphys had helped him with the design. She had a flair for the dramatic so Sans went along with it.
It was going well until he had slipped on a patch of ice. The next thing Sans knew he was sitting on the ground with his arm shredded. He must have fallen on one of the sharp weapons he had been carrying.
In hindsight Sans probably should have asked for some help with that one.
Now he had put himself into a precarious situation all because he couldn't ask for help with even the simplest of tasks.
Sans sat up in bed. This was not the time to chastise himself for what happened in the past. He had to think about the future. First off Undyne now knew. No hiding behind uncertainties anymore. She had his original file. Dad had never used names in his studies. Sans had been human or subject 100-583.
That being said skeletons were rare in the underground. Finding out there had been one doing your job before you that had disappeared without a trace would have perked her interest. The fact he had been a skeleton would have made things easier. If she had Papyrus' file as well finding them would have been simple. All she had to do was find a skeleton of the right age group and that would have been a cakewalk.
Through Papyrus she had tracked the two down not long after she had been appointed royal scientist. She had found Sans when he was at his station assuming he was the younger of the two. Of course he denied everything and played dumb.
Sans didn't know how undyne and Papyrus ended up friends but he was sure it had something to do with her snooping. Not that he particularly cared. it was hard for Papyrus to make friends and Undyne was a very nice monster.
Deep down Sans was afraid he might have ruined his brothers friendship. Undyne seemed like she was okay with Sans being a human and she had helped him but still...
Her job was about doing science to help the Underground and studying the humans. Even though Sans soul could no longer be used to break the barrier he was still a valuable test subject.
"-ans?"
Startled out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder Sans flinched away before he realized it was his brother.
"Hey, you okay there?" Papyrus asked kneeling next to Sans bed.
"Yes." Sans said as he instinctively pulled the sheets up to cover his exposed arms. "Can we go home?"
Papyrus pulled out his cell phone to check the time " Undyne said she wanted to give you a once over before you head home to make sure everything is okay. She should still be up it's not that late."
Of course she wanted to give him a once over, that was her job.
"I am really tired can we just head home?"
Papyrus seemed to consider but shook his head. "We should at the very least let Undyne know you are okay. Then we could head home is that cool?"
Sans was torn between his compulsive need to be polite and the need to just run home and hide under his bed for awhile. In the end politeness won out. Undyne had been very nice about this whole thing. Saying thank you was the least he could do.
"Yes." Sans said getting out of the bed he had been sitting in. His exposed arms were making him very uncomfortable and thought of undyne seeing him made his breathing pick up. It was irrational, she had already seen his arms, but it was just all too much too quickly.
Sans tugged one of the blankets off the bed and wrapped it around himself like he was cold. It was so long that it dragged behind him on the floor. Papyrus raised an eye ridge but said nothing. That is until the blanket got tangled around Sans feet about halfway to the elevator and he triped.
Sans let out a pained gasp as he landed on his bad arm.
In a second Papyrus was by his side.
"Are you okay?" He asked helping Sans untangle himself from the sheets and getting him to his feet.
"I am fine." Sans said trying to re-wrap the blanket around his arms but Papyrus stopped him halfway through.
"Maybe we should leave it." Papyrus said gesturing to the sheet.
"I need it, I'm cold." Sans muttered.
He was lying but Papyrus didn't call him out on it. Instead the taller of the two pulled of his orange hoodie and handed it over.
Gratefully Sans pulled the piece of clothing over his head. It was way to big but at least he wasn't going to trip on it.
"Lookin' good." Papyrus said teasingly.
Sans just rolled the lights in his eyes but under the mask he was smiling.
Feeling more secure the two made their way upstairs.
The lab was just a messy as when they had left it. Papers now littered the ground where Undyne had thrown them earlier. At least the blood had been mopped up. Undyne herself was nowhere to be seen. They could however hear her speaking softly upstairs.
"Undyne?" Papyrus called.
A head popped over the railing and immediately the two brothers could see she looked strained.
"Ya, that's t-them." They heard her say before she went back into her living area.
The call ended soon and she came downstairs. She was trying to smile but it only made her look more exhausted.
"Who was that?" Papyrus asked.
"Alphys." Undyne replied rubbing her arms. "We may have a b-bit of a problem."
"Is she okay?" Sans was immediately worried about his friend.
"She's fine. The p-problem is s-she may have found s-some traces of a human outside of S-snowdin and she might have s-started a full s-scale hunt?" Undyne's voice had gotten softer and softer until at the end she was speaking in a soft voice.
"You're phrasing that as a question." Papyrus stated rubbing his forehead in an irritated manner.
"You didn't tell her anything did you?" Sans asked quietly.
"No!" Undyne started forcefully but quieted her voice when she saw Sans flinched. "Of course I d-didn't. She was just really w-worried when you guys apparently didn't s-show up for work today. She thought this "human" might have d-dusted you two. All I t-told her is that you two were h-here with me."
Both Sans and Papyrus relaxed at this.
"Maybe we shouldn't head home quite yet..." Papyrus stated looking to Sans for a course staying here was probably smart. They completely avoid the hunt by staying out of sight and out of mind for a little while.
"Maybe..." Sans said playing with the long sleeves of his borrowed hoodie. He was still nervous about Undyne wanting to study him but Papyrus was here and Papyrus wouldn't let anything bad happen to him.
"We could get Grillby's for dinner."
Sans perked up at that. Grillby's was Sans favorite restraint. They never ate there because it was all the way at the other end of Hotland and because Papyrus didn't really like the food. Clearly he was being bribed but you know what? Today had been a rough day. He would gladly take the bribe of his favorite dinner.
"You know me so well." Sans said mimicking his brothers eye wink playfully.
"Maybe I should let you borrow my hoodie more often." Papyrus rubbed the top of Sans head with his hand "you're already acting like a cool guy."
"More like a t-total nerd." Undyne said getting into it.
"The biggest nerd." San agreed.
"Teaming up on me? I'm hurt."
"S-sure" Undyne said tossing Papyrus a small bag of gold. "Go grab s-some food n-nerd."
"Look who's calling the kettle black." Papyrus retorted but he was clearly smiling.
This was good. Sans could deal with this. The thought of being alone with Undyne while Papyrus picked up some dinner didn't make him as nervous as it would have moments ago. He was still uneasy but he didn't think a panic attack or anything would happen. She hadn't even really mentioned the human thing directly yet. Which Sans was extremely grateful for.
As Papyrus left with a wave Sans stood in the lab with Undyne wondering what they would do while they waited for his brother to get back.